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06-Jul-2013 -- This is the fifth out of 6 reports of attempts to reach confluence points in Greenland. The story starts from 67°N 50°W. The previous confluence report is 67°N 53°W.

After hiking one week, we arrived on this Saturday evening the coastal town Sisimiut (16 km from the confluence). Now we were looking forward to having a great dinner and a real bed after a long time of sleeping in basic huts and having instant meals. We were just about checking in a hotel, when we learned that the weekly ferry will leave in an hour! In order to not get stuck in Sisimiut for a week, we rushed to the harbour and tried to enter the Sarfaq Ittuk. But access was denied because the ship was fully booked. Well, it was high season and spontaneous travel is a risk in Greenland. There had been 3 coastal ferries three years ago, but now reduced to a single one that cruises up and down the west coast of Greenland on a weekly schedule. In summer, the Greenlanders as well as foreign tourists use the ship for transport or for a cruise.

But when we were pleading for an opportunity to travel with the ship, the captain relented. We got two beds in the ship’s hospital. And this was the largest room on board with a real bathtub!

45 minutes after our departure, at 9:45 PM, the ship came close to this confluence point which I hadn’t expected. I just routinely checked the GPS, when the pointer clearly showed an upcoming approach. I went on deck, hoping for a hit (i.e. coming within 100 m). But it turned out to become a miss by 737 m. The ship was turning too far north heading for Aasiaat and we were too far in the east.

The fog prevented us from seeing land (an archipelago with tiny islands), which were just 2.3 km from the confluence point.

Right after the confluence approach, we fell to bed and slept like stones. In the next morning we had a stopover in Aasiat and then had a great breakfast.